The SME Solution grew out of frustration of senior project professionals witnessing project management malpractice on oil, gas, and LNG mega/giga projects.  From our past experiences, we know there are better ways to successfully manage large, complex projects.
The SME Solution is NOT a staff augmentation service.  The SME Solution is a commitment to train, mentor, and support an existing project team to achieve success by implementing sound project management philosophy and processes.
The SME Solution starts with selecting the right project, defining the project frame, identifying the different parts of the project, developing a achievable plans for each part, integrating the plans into an overall budget, identifying/understanding the risks, and developing an execution plan to manage the work. 
The project approval process ensures buy-in at all levels, an understanding of the risks, an understanding the range of possible outcomes, and reaching agreement on the scope, budget and baseline schedule.
Project execution is based on a “no surprises” culture, with strong emphasis on management of change to avoid “scope creep”.  Project management uses the data, not “gut feel”, with a strong cost and schedule stewardship philosophy.  Cost Contingency (dollars) and Schedule Contingency (time) are strictly managed and controlled.  Contract management is directly linked with cost and schedule management.
Engineering Management is the key to achieving project success.  Most project failures occur during the engineering and design phase of a project.  Managing change is most important, followed by managing vendor data.  Control system design is a software development project to be managed within the overall project schedule.
Project completion doesn’t just happen by itself.  The transition from construction to commissioning and start up is closely planned and managed.  The SME Solution follows the “done-done” approach using fish-bone diagrams to integrate the parts of the project to make the completed whole.
SME’s provide periodic health checks during project execution and at phase gates.
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Although the SME (Subject Matter Expert) Solution has been around for some years, since the first skills gap from the 1980's hit the O&G industry, many companies still do not understand or use the potential savings and benefits it can provide. Some of these are as below:

1. Mega-Projects fail by an average of 98%, they are too difficult to control - Solution - Break “Mega-Projects” into smaller, individual, stand-alone, controllable projects that are completion supportive to the overall.

2. Mega Projects exceed the original budget by an average of 80%, Project teams lack experience, knowledge and do not apply proper controls - Solution - SME's add experience and apply strict budgetary control and accountability over smaller projects aligned with approved contracting strategies and procurement processes & procedures.

3. Mega Projects exceed schedule by an average of 20 months, Planning today relies on “software programs”, they abuse the CPM rules because the software allows this and do not recognize the difference between Planners & Schedulers - Solution - SME's add experience and plan projects through every phase from concept to completions and through every level from 0 to 6 using the “Top-Down + Bottom-Up” methodology then use the software as a tool not the guru.

4. The management average years of experience within a project today is approx. 10-15 years. Solution - SME's inject 2-3 decades of experience and construction lessons learned into the project solution. SME averages 25+ years.

5. Today’s Project Management Teams are University trained and expunge university methodology - Solution - SME's are project field trained with years of “hand-on” experience and hard lessons learned.

6. Today’s Project Management Teams are mainly engineers who tend to “re-invent the wheel” on every project. (expensive) - Solution - SME's look at successful projects and project components worldwide and selectively use that design engineered component updated to meet the project environment.

​Would you rather lose $millions per month using the same old methodologies that have failed or would you consider using a cost effective solution to save long term?